Oh yeah! Go authors! Go poets! I am SO excited I feel I might burst!

An announcement is coming …..

From one hundred and seven entries, down to eight.  We have to decide today on the top six.  It won’t be easy.  There are some stunning entries; they all have something to offer.  But there are some unfortunate typos, punctuation errors, little details that a young poet or author needs to become hyper-sensitive about.  But then, given the nature of the competition, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the little things that other judges may penalise by concentrating on the bigger picture, be it the theme, the words themselves, the tone, the pace.

 One hundred and seven entries; three judges.

 Will we be so off the mark that we cannot agree?

 My heart is in my mouth.

 Watch this space ….

I’ve been reading the Rotary Club competition entries since last Friday and have finally made a shortlist. However, just to make sure I’ve given everyone a really good chance, I re-read every single entry yesterday.

Every one of them is a winner, be it because of great punctuation, inspiring ideas, story twists or just plain good spelling!

I can’t tell you how hard it is to pick three winners from both categories.  There are children who have written about their sporting heroes and how they’ve been inspired by them; there are personal stories about how a child has overcome a fear, taking inspiration from those around them; there are children who have written stories from the point of view of a famous sportsman or woman.  The poems are about the colour, the excitement, and the smell of an Olympic win. 

Like I said, each one is a winner.

Now it’s come down to the final few, I’m taking a break so I can go back to the entries with a fresh mind in a day or two.

So, do I judge these now on perfect punctuation or a terrific storyline? Do I favour those stories with a twist? 

I’m waiting to hear how Lisa and Helen got on with their judging, if they picked out the same kind of entries, if we’re all thinking along the same lines.  Then I’ll take it from there.

Like I said, it’s going to be tough, but incredibly exciting for the six children whose entries are selected for the bronze, silver and gold.

Thanks again to the organisers for supporting this competition and well done to all the schools who took the time to encourage their children to take part.

Watch this space for more news soon

Sarah

A MASSIVE thank you to the Rotary Club of Four Marks and Medstead who are sponsoring a local writing competition aimed at inspiring young children to write. It’s great to see organisations getting involved in the promotion of the written word.

The competition that has so far brought in over 100 entries is running with the theme: ‘Olympic Dreams’ or ‘Olympic Spirit’, and a local subtheme of ‘Inspiration’.

Although the deadline for entries has now lapsed, all entrants had to be born between 01/09/2000 and 31/08/2004 and produce a piece of poetry (up to 400 words) or prose (up to 500 words). Four local schools were involved. These include Chawton, Four Marks, Medstead and St. Mary’s at Bentworth. Congratulations to all of those who have taken part so far.

Certificates will be presented to all participants, as well as book vouchers to the first, second and third place in each of the two categories.

I was delighted to be asked to join the judging panel some time ago and look forward with great anticipation to start reading through all the entries.

Madaboutsnailbooks is all about inspiring children to write; we like to encourage children to draw and learn how to illustrate their work. I can’t wait to make a start on reading the entries. I know it’s going to be tough because I’m sure there’ll be a gem in every piece of writing … thankfully, there will be guidelines to follow, things that will help the judges to pull out the best pieces.

The competition, which is part of a national event sponsored by Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, is a preliminary event. Finalists will go forward to a district national stage.

Thanks to Lisa Hillan, former English teacher and Youth Opportunities/’New Generations’ Officer for organising this wonderful event, along with Helen Allen-Rogers, President of Four Marks and Medstead Rotary and fellow competition judge.

Follow this blog if you’d like to find out what surprises we have in store and who gets through to the next stage.

With happy writing thoughts to you all.

Sarah

PYTAD

Remember! Get your stocking orders in for personally-signed madaboutsnailbooks in good time. We can deliver up to December 20th (23rd if you are within a five mile radius from Alton).

Sorry, all T-shirts have now gone but we can take orders for 2012.

What’s new for 2012? The new year will see the publication of snail book number four, Slime in Time. It’s been a battle to get this one together. Watch this space for the launch date.

Email your Christmas orders now to sarah@madaboutsnailbooks.com and we will hurry to make sure you get them by return.

Happy shopping!

Sarah

Old School Cottage
Upper Farringdon
Hampshire

Friday 25th November
10.00 am – 1.00 pm
and
7.00 pm – 9.00 pm

Come and have your madaboutsnailbook
signed

Ten per cent of all takings donated to Selborne CofE Primary School in aid of their new playground

I enjoy getting story ideas from what I see around me and from what’s happening in the world. Imagine my surprise when I found this snippet on a website relating to Miami, Florida? Given that my next fiction book after Slime in Time is SNALIEN!, you can imagine where I’m going to take it:

‘Huge, slimy snails from Africa recently overran a Miami (Florida, USA) suburb. Thousands of the giant African snail (Achatina Fulica) variety — which can grow up to 20cm, or nearly eight inches — have been scaring residents, leaving slimy trails and a foul odour when they die, and chomping up local plants. They also carry a health risk: they carry a parasite known as the rat lungworm that can enter the central nervous system and cause nausea, headache and nerve damage.

Snails are dual-sex, and hence can proliferate. The last time giant African snails surfaced in south Florida was in 1966, when a boy smuggled just three of them from Hawaii and set them free in his garden. They quickly started breeding, and it took almost a decade and a million dollars to get rid of them all. Now it’s deja vu!’

Do you see where I’m going with this? Inspiration is all around us  If you know that little boy who set those snails free in his garden in ’66, email me. 

Happy writing to you all.

Before half term arrives and October comes to a close, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to the children and staff at two primary schools – St. Mary’s in Frensham, Surrey and St. Mary’s in Chiddingfold, Sussex, for making me feel so welcome these last few weeks.

We had great fun making snail trails with the reception and year one classes and everyone enjoyed the little guests we brought along with us. The older children in years two and three enjoyed hearing our story about how we as a family began to write, and they learnt some interesting facts about giant African land snails, including, importantly, that they have mouths with tongues and teeth in them!

Years four, five and six listened very thoughtfully to how we plan our story writing – with story mountains and spider diagrams, reducing the five stages in the story mountain to three simple ones.and  how we spent lots of time in libraries looking at different books to work out how many chapters we should have wrriting for the audience that we have. Everyone enjoyed the snails Bob, Gary, Sam and the rest of the little ones that we have yet to name.

The good news during our visit to Chiddingfold is that some of the younger children spotted snail eggs in our tank! We are very excited about these as they are MASSIVE. I’ll let you all know how we get on.  My one hope is that they were laid by the GARGANTUAN snail we borrowed from Rosie to take to the Literature Festival in Ilkley a few weeks ago.  Now those eggs will be worth watching!  4-6 weeks to go and we will see what comes out of them ….

Next exciting piece of news – Amy is about to finish her pictures for the fourth snail book – Slime in Time. She really is a very talented artist and I can’t wait for you all to see what she has drawn.  It’s good of her to fit them in when she is so busy with year eleven, exams looming and big decisions in her life about college = WAH!

Keep on writing, drawing and reading, everyone. But most of all, HAVE FUN being creative wherever you are!

Bye for now.